The Blues

1
The Blues
2
State of mind

• The term "blue.
• Performance or interaction with the music can be
  seen as a means of ridding oneself of "the
  blues."
• Many jazz players of all schools have held that a
  musicians ability to play the blues expressively
  is a measure of his or her quality.

3
Performance techniques or practices

• "rough" or "unrefined" timbres
• "blue" notes such as the b3 or b5, or deviations
  from "standard" pitch
• improvisation, including variations of the melody
  and solos

4
Form of the Blues

• Strophic repetition of one or more sections of
  a piece, such as in a song with multiple verses
  or choruses
• Typical form of a blues chorus
• 2 identical lines of text followed by a single
  contrasting line
• melody follows the lyric form
• form described as AAB

5
Blues form contd

• fixed harmonic progression

6
Origins of the Blues

• Work songs
• call response
• group participation
• Field hollers
• long, loud, musical shout, rising and falling
  and breaking into falsetto
• solo
• improvised
• inflections similar to blues